Tuesday, May 31, 2011

What a girl wants!

Many, Many Dresses!!!  Last year I could not stop making quilts! This year I cannot stop making clothes!!
  Look at all these cute dresses I found on  www.modcloth.com  If you are looking for inspiration check out there website. I want to make a dress that is this shape. How it's a little tight around the upper body then ruffles out at the waist. AND I found a couple butterick patterns that I think will work. Oh and I had to make sure the pattern said "Fast and Easy"  No more of the complicated nonsense from this dress  Although now looking back I think I was exagerrating a bit much...it really wasn't all that bad...(i can say that now that it's done)

So I found a couple butterick patterns that I think might work either 4957 or 5351. Guess I better go pick out some fabric and get the pattern...Till Next Time, here are a few more dresses to wish upon...
 



Monday, May 30, 2011

Continuation...

 So this is the conclusion of my dress using the cynthia Rowley Pattern...
I don't know why these came out so blurry, I must have had my camera on the wrong setting....
And I woke up this morning and it was snowing!! So i had to try to find good lighting in my house and my daughter will only take so many pictures before she runs out of patience.
Anyways...after my last post listing all my frustrations here is what I got...I still don't think it's worth 3 days of sewing!!
but throw a cardi on it and it works for work!


Here is a shot of the zipper, can you see how I had to sew more fabric to the midriff? Yeah..that is another mistake that was made. And I think that since the pattern adds the zipper then I don't have to use knit. (because the pattern says "knit only")

And here is a close up of the collar. I didn't follow the directions on this step. I actually finished the collar part then sewed it on top of the bodice. The previous post goes into detail about this.

In conclusion...its not bad for $2.00!  I bought the fabric at Hancock Fabrics and it was on sale for .95/yard!
Thanks for looking!  I'm going to participate in


Photobucket 
 
Fresh Poppy Design


doll pillow

My niece is so cute..every time she comes over she picks up this pillow...
And she always asks if she can bring her doll over so she can lay on it and she is only 3 so she says it in the cutest voice. Next week is her birthday so I decided to make her one. I would just give her this one but since her b-day is coming up I didn't really want to wrap this up and make it look like I just gave her a random gift around the house. So I made this...
I hope she likes it. I love applique'..its just a mini pillow, about 8x9, perfect for her doll.

I thought I would share a little applique tip.  Have you ever had a hard time peeling the backing off after you get it all cut out? I have..and then the section where I try to peel it off ends up fraying...so I peel a little bit off first then mark it and then cut it.. 
That way after I cut it I can take the peeling off from where I marked it.. 
and then you don't have to waste minutes trying to peel the backing off..and you keep your edges clean!
Maybe some of you are saying "duh" but I didn't think to do this my first couple times so if it helps anyone out then I'm glad.
Added some ric rac

And used amy buttler as the backing..and its done, took about 30 minutes to make.
I hope she likes! Thanks for looking.
{Sew} Modern Monday at Canoe Ridge Creations  Keeping It Simple
Click on the buttons for so much inspiration!





Sunday, May 29, 2011

Never Again

K, so you know how I recently blogged about my 1 hour dress? Well this is about a 72hr dress. Never again will I spend that much time making a dress. I don't have the patience or the time. So much went wrong with this dress and alot of the directions or steps did not make sense.
Here's the pattern I am complaining about...it says to only make it out of knit but then it also calls for a zipper on the side?
The first thing I did different was make the top strap lay over the bodice instead of fighting with all the pinning...i have heard horror stories about this step.

So I just sewed it on top..I don't know how else to explain it...

This part did not make sense either....why would I sew the midriff facing on before I sewed the skirt on? But no way was I going to unpick it! This is a delicate knit and I started to unpick a different part and ended up putting a hole in it so forget it..
Then..if that was not enough I sewed the zipper on backwards and did something really weird with the pockets...To Be Continued....

Wednesday, May 25, 2011

One Hour Dress


McCall's 9172

I cut the pattern out first then I wanted to time it to see if it really was only a 1 hour dress.
It's only 4 pieces!

So I look at the time and its 6:50 pm so I start to sew!
After a lot of unpicking I got it done around 8:30 pm so around 1hr 30mins. I could not understand what the pattern was saying about sewing the interfacing on...I got completely lost and just  unpicked it and did it my own way. So on my next dress I think it will definitely take 1hour or less..

And here it is! I love the dress..not sure if I like the fabric choice...It's hard trying to find a good fabric design..sometimes I will love the fabric but it may not look so good as a piece of clothing. Anywho, i am so excited to make another one.   Usually the size is so off but this fits me so good. It even has you put darts in the chest area and I did not have to do any adjustments...I just did exactly what the pattern says. I didn't even have to take it in on the sides!! 

There are so many options with this dress. I think everyone should have this pattern. And Everyone should have it in black.  I want to get a solid color fabric and make it ruffly...I can add ruffles to the top and even have it be a tiered dress. I can even shirr(sp?)  it in the middle. With this particular dress I am just going to leave it as is.
I like adding a fun fabric for the facing on the inside as well. And I love how this pattern did not involve any bias tape..I'm not good at that.
Because of the interfacing I didn't have to add bias tape...and look how clean it looks.
The button was simple to do too.
Wouldn't it be fun to do a sew -a-long with this dress? Or a challenge to see what everyone can make in 1 hour or less?  I want to host something like that...maybe when I get more followers?
For Now I will link up to make it wear it Making
 I also Signed up for the Summer of No Pants so I will be linking this to the Flickr Pool.

 It will run from 5/23/2010 until sometime in june..
Just click on the link for details...

Thanks for Looking!





Tuesday, May 24, 2011

Work In Progress

Who wants a cupcake? I am loving this project. I bought this pattern at the Home Machine Quilting Show
 
I love these patterns by Thankfully Sew. She has something cute for every season,  I made a Snowman from her pattern too.

This is what it will look like when it's finished. I did it a little differently with the gray background,

I still have a lot to work on, I'm going to put pom poms on it, add ric rac and buttons and I need to add the words "Happy Birthday" I can't wait to get it finished!

Oh and here is an update on the quilt that I was working on last week. Its completed!
Yeah, I know it looks wierd...I was just  undecided when putting it all together.
Click here to see more pictures and the story behind it. And as always, thanks for looking!
WIP Wednesday at Freshly Pieced


Sunday, May 22, 2011

The confused quilter...

So this is the quilt that I struggled with from day 1! I started working on this....hmmm, lets see...2 years ago!

The part that is labeled "front" was going to be the front of the quilt then on the right side of it was actually going to be the back. (it was going to be like a runner for my bed) I just wanted to make a quilt to display at the foot of my bed...then I thought that was kind of a dumb idea so I just sewed the front and back together. ??

But then this turned out okay because when I fold it one way you get the pretty lime and blue shades of flowers and if you fold it the other way then you get the pretty patchwork.

And here is the back, the back is actually my favorite. I love the Valorie Wells fabric.  I also made curtains out of this fabric in the turquoise shade.

I can also fold it up and put at the end of my bed with this side showing..although I even like it like this too!
So I guess being confused wasn't that bad after all.
Thanks for looking, click here if you want to see more pictures. Oh and check out these great parties I am linking too...You don't want to miss out on all the inspiration!



sew many waysKeeping It Simple

Sewing Scrap Projects! A Quilted Bag.

Don't you just love all this fabric goodness?  In todays episode we will dive into scraps of fabric again! Do you have a fabric stash? I...